Sunday, September 16, 2007

Celebrities and People of Notoriety Opposed to the Death Penalty Photos

Celebrities and People of Notoriety Opposed to the Death Penalty. An original art project by Scott Langley, inspired by Robert Rosenheck's "LOVE" project.
This photo project is designed to develop a collection of photographs depicting outspoken celebrities and other people of notoriety who oppose the death penalty, by tying them all together by holding the same "I Oppose the Death Penalty!" sign. A kind of "visual petition," if you will.
Musicians, actors, actresses, authors, politicians and others have a history of using their public positions to speak out on a variety of issues - including the death penalty. This is an ongoing project and will be developed over time. Click
Here to view the photos.

Artist's Biography:
Scott Langley is a free-lance photojournalist based in Boston. From 1996-2000, Scott was a Texas press photographer in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. His documentary work has been widespread throughout the world in recent years - appearing in newspapers, magazines, books, encyclopedias, theater productions, calendars, films, on television, t-shirts and even in a European music video. In addition to work as a photographer, Scott has been an active grassroots organizer against the death penalty since 1999.

In 2004, he and his wife co-founded the Raleigh Catholic Worker Hospitality House where families of North Carolina death row prisoners may find free shelter, food and support. Since 2004 Scott has served as an Amnesty International USA State Death Penalty Coordinator, first in North Carolina and now in Massachusetts. He now works on an international level to end executions and to educate people about the death penalty, traveling within and outside the U.S. to speak about capital punishment, his work against executions, his work with death row families, and about his photography documentary project.

More about Scott Langley

The Ku Klux Klan rallying in support of a black man’s execution in Texas. The North Carolina death row warden wheeling a gurney into the execution chamber. Weeping family members at the moment of a loved one’s execution. These are just a few of the images captured in Scott Langley’s chilling death penalty documentary photography project, which is the most comprehensive collection of original death penalty photographs on the internet.

The documentary includes execution vigils, inside an execution chamber, the hours leading up to an execution, portraits of exonerated death row prisoners, celebrities opposed to the death penalty, marches, demonstrations and candid emotional and prayerful moments.
The Death Penalty Photography Documentary Project is an eight-year product of exploring capital punishment through the photographer's lens. It was birthed from a college art project to creatively address a human rights issue, and started with a few photos from an execution vigil in Huntsville, Texas.

The original project has since grown into an internationally shown exhibit consisting of over 800 images - making it the largest, most varied known collection of photos about the death penalty in the United States' modern era.
This work-in-progress highlights Scott Langley's efforts as a photojournalist and a human rights activist - bringing together the unique combination of art, journalism and education into one powerful project. The exhibit has been exhibited by Amnesty International in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Raleigh, Germany, Denmark, at Harvard and Cornell Universities, and in print and video media across the world

From
Images of the Death Penalty Photographs by Scott Langley website.
Scott Langley's Death Penalty Documentary Photography Project

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